Lucy Gatimu is a mother of three young girls earning a living by doing other people’s laundry. She has captured the hearts of many KOT to a massive funds drive in her aid.

It all started when Twitter user Osama Otero took to the social networking site urging his followers to take it upon themselves to help less privileged children with school necessities whenever possible.

Otero, in the tweet, rallied fellow Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) to spare as little as Ksh.600 bob out of their drinking budgets to buy shoes or bags for needy school going children.

Ms Gatimu then took to the comment section pleading with Otero to “start with me” saying two of her daughters are in need of extra uniform but she is unable to raise the money since whatever she makes from doing people’s laundry isn’t enough.

Otero, in response, told her to sell the phone she was using to tweet and buy the kids the spare uniform, then buy a cheaper phone with the balance.

Gatimu, seemingly hurt by the response, apologized if her request had angered Otero saying she had no bad intentions “by asking for help.”

Otero, who boasts over 63,000 Followers on Twitter, then put his foot further in his mouth and rudely told her off telling her to “tumia akili shenz type”, loosely translated to “use your brain, stupid.”

The response by the perceived Twitter Z ‘bigwig’ angered a section of KOT, with most of them castigating him for ‘abusing’ somebody who was genuinely seeking help.

Otero later apologized but the damage had already been done, and Lucy’s plight was heard; hence KOT, in their usual fashion, swung to action.

Funds drives – led by different Twitter users including Waithera and Mwass – have since been initiated to aid the mother of two in purchasing new uniform for her children as well as for her day-to-day needs.

It was however unclear, at the time of publishing, how much she had received so far as both her phone numbers were switched off.

Now that’s a good ending.

Via citizen